Rhapsody in Red

Feature Article from Hemmings Muscle Machines

Especially when the mercurial, egomaniacal Henry Ford II ran the family business, the Ford Motor Company's obsession with performance considerably predated the start of the traditional mid-size muscle car phenomenon. Perhaps it's because Chevrolet's small-block V-8 instantly and rudely shoved aside Ford's venerable flathead V-8 as everyman's roddable engine of choice. Or maybe it was because Chrysler and Oldsmobile routinely took the measure of Ford's products on the ovals of the Southeast. Whatever the motivation, The Deuce eventually determined to make his company the world's dominant force in international racing. Before that happened, though-and it absolutely did happen-Ford's "Total Performance" campaign was anchored by its bread and butter, full-size family cars.
It started off slowly, with the strangely crow-like 1960 Starliner whose replacement for 1961 was a truly handsome car heavily invested in Ford themes, starting with its large, single round taillamps. The 1961 Fords were called "The Lively Ones," with real justification: At the top of the powertrain heap was the 401hp, 406-cu.in. FE V-8 guzzling cheap premium through a trio of two-barrels. In 1962, the same engine was nudged to 405hp, but relegated to that year's bricklike Victoria or "boxtop" roofline. Matters took off in earnest in 1963, though, when Ford rolled out the Total Performance bandwagon and pulled it along with a restyled Galaxie fastback, now ready for combat with an enlarged 427-cu.in. version of the FE V-8 that developed 410hp with a single four-barrel carburetor or 425 when topped with a pair of Holley 4160s. Ford's big cars were finally worthy of respect, if not fear.
Then came 1964. With performance cars increasingly marketed on the basis of their quarter-miles, the manufacturers swiftly realized that full-size cars weren't going to cut it. Both the mid-size muscle car and the compact pony car were born that year. To be sure, you could order big power in a full-size Ford, but in Dearborn, at least, it quickly became clear that Ford's goal for its biggest stuff was affordable prestige, not clenched-fist brawn. In 1965, the LTD was introduced as an option package for the Galaxie 500XL. By the following year, it would be a stand-alone model, and Ford's advertising would boast, not very convincingly, that its interior was quieter than that of a Rolls-Royce at highway speeds.
While its legions of big-engine Fairlanes, Comets, Mustangs and Cougars commanded most of the attention on the street and the track, Ford still produced family cars with very credible performance capabilities until the beginning of the 1970s. The best known is arguably the Galaxie 500XL-based 7-Litre of 1966, with Ford's new 428-cu.in. V-8 churning out a respectable, if less than staggering, 345 horsepower. Then in 1968, Ford extended Mustang-themed fastback styling through most of its product range. A key vignette of American racing in 1968 was fleets of Ford Torinos and Mercury Cyclones assaulting NASCAR's high banks, in their nose-down, rump-high stance, a crude stab at generating downforce. Yet on the street, the 427 was largely phased out in favor of the less potent, but slightly more tractable 428, which was offered in Cobra Jet and Super Cobra Jet versions. The 428 was a logical fit for the dramatically redone 1968 Galaxie 500 XL, including this highly uncommon variant exquisitely restored by its original owner, Franklin Fitzgerald of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
A full-size Ford performance sedan or coupe from the late Sixties isn't an easy find under any circumstances, because they largely got the same degree of abuse as other family Fords, slick rooflines or not. Franklin specified a decoding of the car's door plate data and build sheet by Marti Auto Works of El Mirage, Arizona, which revealed that it's one of just 1,855 XL-GT fastbacks built in 1968.
How so, you ask? It's because Franklin's Ford represents a unique blend of options that combined performance, head-swiveling looks and lavish interior appointments into a single seamless package. His car is a Galaxie 500XL-GT, a blend of two option groups. Franklin's car was built at Ford's Chicago assembly plant on February 16, 1968, the 693rd of the 1,855 combined-option XL-GTs Ford produced in 1968, which included 316 convertibles. None of this happened by accident: Franklin drove determinedly to Van Boxtel Ford in Green Bay, offered his black 1965 Galaxie 500XL hardtop with its four-barrel, 300hp, 390-cu.in. FE in trade, and started working up a carefully considered order sheet.
Had circumstances dictated otherwise, Franklin would have never considered the XL-GT. His original plan was to acquire a Shelby G.T.350, but in 1968, he was 33 and had already started a family with his wife, Arleen, so a back seat was an absolute necessity. A Torino GT, incidentally, was still deemed too cramped. Extensively optioned except for air conditioning-it's an "optional" option for many Great Lakes buyers-the Candy Apple Red XL-GT's bottom line came to $4,516.88, less the nearly $2,200 trade-in allowance for the '65. So what happened next? Not a baby-seat purchase, but a full engine rebuild for drag racing.
"I was always a Ford person from the time I was a small boy, and I raced," he said. "Street racing, tavern dragging. With the Galaxie, I lost very few times unless I was up against a big-block Camaro or a 440 Barracuda. I probably won at least 200 or 300 races and lost maybe a half-dozen."
The first buildup took place in the spring of 1968, handled by a long-deceased Milwaukee engine builder, Robert Prouty, who specialized in big-displacement Fords. As delivered from the factory, Franklin's Q-code 428 was fitted with a single Holley four-barrel and rated at 340hp with 10.5 compression, along with an impressive 462-lbs.ft. of torque. The builder's changes started with a .030 overbore. Next, 12:1 compression ratio TRW forged pistons were fitted inside the enlarged bores. A Super Cobra Jet hydraulic camshaft, with peak power at up to 7,000 rpm, was installed. So were Ford's medium-riser performance heads with sodium-filled valves. The fuel system underwent a radical change, as the single Holley and stock intake were removed and replaced with a low-rise Ford intake manifold topped with 600cfm Holley BK and BJ four-barrel carburetors. The inrushing mixture was fired by a dual-point Autolite distributor originally designed for the high-output Ford 427. Flow from a Super Cobra Jet oil pump and cooler kept the stressed pieces together.
The suspension, brakes and rear were kept stock. In the rear's case, it was a 9-3/8th-inch Traction-Lok unit originally designed for Lincoln applications, and Franklin is unsure whether these units were installed in all 500XL-GTs, regardless of their engine package, "but I'll tell you this, it's indestructible." So, in his experience, is the C-6 automatic transmission he ordered when the car was new, which channels its power to 3.50 rear-end gears.
In 1968, opting simply for a 500XL with the GT extras bought you a high level of appointments, inside and out. Remember, this was when Ford still had the Custom and Custom 500 as its full-size bottom dwellers. Just by selecting the 500XL model, you stepped up to a die-cast eggcrate grille with LTD-style hidden headlamps, front bucket seats, a center console, additional interior courtesy and warning lights, and chrome trim on the pedals. Ford built a handful more than 50,000 Galaxie 500XL fastback coupes in 1968. Spending the extra $204.64 for the GT package bought you a stiffened suspension, including a front anti-roll bar, front disc brakes, wider performance tires, dual exhausts, GT badging and mag-type custom wheel covers. It also upgraded you to the Z-code, 390-cu.in. V-8 with 315hp; even the 500XL was saddled with a 302 as its base engine.
Franklin didn't make like Benji with his full-sized stomper, flogging away with it for three years until he finally conceded the engine combination was too extreme for part-time street use. In 1971, the original 428 was hoisted out for yet another rebuild. About the only components left unchanged were the dual Holleys, which now reposed atop a 427-spec Ford low-rise intake. The engine was rebored again, this time to .040 over, for a total displacement of 434 cubic inches. The compression was dropped to 10.5, and Ford 427 low-rise heads were substituted, scavenged by impulse-tuned cast-iron exhaust manifolds. A slightly milder, though still sinewy, Super Cobra Jet camshaft with 270 degrees intake duration, 250 degrees exhaust duration and .500 lift was also installed. Since 1972, this is what has ridden in Franklin's holster.
Power is copious, as is Franklin's level of care for this unique Ford benchmark, but the gales that shriek off Lake Michigan, and the ice melt dropped by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation once they start driving lake-effect snow, are not impressed by big Ford output. Look, people have been known to walk out of Lambeau Field on cold days, too. At 120,000 miles, in 1997, Franklin decided it was time to undertake a full body-off restoration, which lasted two years. The reason why is one of the most inspiring and fascinating parts of this story.
The XL-GT's body itself, as it turned out, was largely rust-free and straight and would need only minor work before being refinished. A far greater challenge, however, was presented by the sundry trim and molding pieces, especially of the NOS variety, which Franklin was determined to use for replacements wherever he could find them. And find them he did, by scouring scores of swap meets and Ford shows over the next two years.
"I was a locomotive engineer, and I retired in 1996," he said. "I'd already been getting paid to do a hobby, so when I retired, my wife said, 'Do it.' The moldings tended to get nicked or pitted, so I tried to find NOS: The water valves and vacuum valves for the heater, all the moldings, the wheel covers, all the trunk exterior moldings and the grille. The rear quarter window moldings are original, but needed to be rechromed."
Since the replacement parts are so hard to find, especially the exterior GT badges, Franklin has tried to buy up as many as he can in case more work is needed in the future. In his garage, decorated with Ford motorsport, Green Bay Packers and railroad memorabilia, he has two highly organized shelving systems to hold the NOS parts in an orderly manner. Every storage bin is marked with the part's function: engine, electrical, body, interior. He can recall buying a hood molding that originally retailed for $6.87 at Ford parts counters for $195 at a show in Indianapolis eight years ago. The hardest pieces to find, hands down, were small parts for the center console; likely, as he explained, "Either Ford didn't make a lot of them, or else they were so susceptible to damage from people kicking the console or climbing over it."
Restoring the XL-GT was a family-and-friends affair. Most of the teardown and reassembly was undertaken by Franklin, Arleen, his friend Warren Glime, Franklin's son-in-law Tom Aldrich and Tom's son, Tyler. Tom Garrits at Bellevue Body Shop in Green Bay inspected the disassembled car, and first found slight surface rust beneath the trunk moldings. There was more, Franklin said: "Ford had bad frames from 1965 to 1968; they held moisture inside. When we were taking the gas line off, on the left side of the frame rail, behind the torque boxes, you could put your finger right through the frame rail. That's where they were notorious for holding moisture."
Rust remediation rectified, Garrits media-blasted the body and frame before applying four coats of PPG epoxy primer and finishing with four coats of PPG acrylic urethane paint in the original Candy Apple Red, wet-sanding between coats. PPG acrylic semi-gloss was used on the chassis and suspension. Parts that needed rechroming were plated by Steve Campbell at The Chrome Shop in Menasha, Wisconsin. Bay Exhaust in Green Bay fabricated a new set of duals. Paul Reinhold of Colortech of Wisconsin in Green Bay reproduced the gold GT side stripes from original 3M material. Jim Cowles of Green Bay allowed Franklin to use his shop, Shelby Parts Restoration, to refinish smaller parts, and directed him to many NOS pieces.
In 36 years, Franklin has only had to install a Boss 429 oil cooler and replace a band and bearing in the C-6 to keep the XL-GT running, and run it does: Footbraked from a dead stop in first, the huge hardtop leaps off the line with its radials spinning as if it was launched from a soapy car-wash exit. They hook up calmly, though, and Franklin manually upshifts the C-6 crisply at 6,000 to 6,200 rpm, the FE big-block's bellow barely blunted. Nose angling upward, the XL-GT charges effortlessly into triple digits along one of the many straight but gently undulating roads that dot the Wisconsin lakefront. Above the exhaust cacophony, Franklin loudly remarks, "The torque this thing has got, it's tremendous. Even thought it's a 2-1/2-ton car, it winds right up and has very swift acceleration. I'd estimate that right now, it makes 390 or 400hp, but I'll tell you, it's no road racer. It doesn't like to go around corners. When you've got pitman-arm steering like this does, you know it's not rack-and-pinion. The disc brakes, though, for the size of the car, are pretty good.
It's impossible to say how many of the already rare XL-GTs still survive, although the number is clearly tiny. Franklin's car was one of two XL-GTs invited to Ford's 100th anniversary celebration in 2003; the other was a black-and-gold fastback out of Texas. Franklin knows of one other XL-GT, a convertible, located in Illinois.
"I know there aren't many," he said. "When I was still working, our railroad came through Blair, Wisconsin, on the way to the Mississippi River, and in around 1970, I saw one from the cab, the same color as mine, the only other one I ever saw. It was outside a cheese plant, believe it or not."
OWNER'S VIEW
If anything's been an overreaching constant in Franklin Fitzgerald's life, it's his riveted attentiveness to the judicious application of very, very big power. A self-described "hot rodder since boyhood," this son of a Ford salesman had a customized 1950 coupe as a magazine feature car, before going on to deftly control thousands of tons being pulled by Alcos of the Green Bay & Western Lines and later, the massive EMD SD-45s of the Wisconsin Central. His display cabinet includes an HO-scale replica of every engine he ever ran. But his most noteworthy achievement is likely his focused determination to find pristine original parts for his Ford, burning up dollars and miles in equal measures to find them.
"My wife knows what a C8AZ molding code is, that it represents a '68 Galaxie," he said. "She told me, 'Get what you need to do the car right.' So I bought $1,250 worth of moldings at one show, got them home and I didn't realize that I had two just like them, still in the factory wrapping. I'd bought both of them for $5.83 wholesale."
PROS
Unforgettable fastback Ford styling
428 engine has gut-churning torque
XL-GTs are among scarcest Ford muscle
CONS
Heavy tonnage limits sheer acceleration
With stock chassis, handling is uncertain
Franklin may already have all extant NOS
CLUB SCENEFord Galaxie Club of Americawww.galaxieclub.com
Dues: $35/year; Membership: 5,000
The Galaxie Club of Canada
15127 Dove Place
Surrey, B.C. V3R-4T6www.galaxieclub.ca
Dues: $20 (CDN)/year; Membership: 64
SPECIFICATIONSPrice
Base price: $3,159
Options on car profiled:
Cruise-O-Matic, $233.17
Traction-Lok axle, $41.60
Deluxe seat belts, $15.59
Extra cooling package, $12.95
Tinted glass, $42.12
GT Package, $204.64
Remote-control mirror, $9.58
AM-FM stereo radio, $181.36
Bucket seats and console, $90.68
Rear speakers, $25.91
Power steering, $94.95
Tachometer, $47.92
Tilt steering wheel, $42.76
Undercoat, $30.00
Comfort-Flow ventilation, $40.01
Engine
Type: OHV V-8, cast-iron block and heads
Displacement: 434 cubic inches
Bore x Stroke: 4.17 x 3.98 inches
Compression ratio: 10.5:1
Horsepower @ rpm: 340 @ 5,400 (stock)
Torque @ rpm: 462-lbs.ft. @ 2,800 (stock)
Valvetrain: Ford Super Cobra Jet camshaft, Super Cobra Jet high-rpm hydraulic valve lifters
Main bearings: 5
Fuel system: Holley BK and BJ four-barrel carburetors, mechanical pump
Lubrication system: Full pressure, 80-lb. Speed Pro pump
Electrical system: 12-volt, dual-breaker Autolite distributor
Exhaust system: Custom 2-1/2-inch dual exhaust
Transmission
Type Ford C-6 three-speed automatic
Ratios: 1st 2.46:1
2nd: 1.46:1
3rd: 1.00:1
Reverse: 2.20:1
Differential
Type: Hypoid semi-floating, limited-slip
Ratio: 3.50:1
Steering
Type: Parallelogram with cross link and idler arm, power assist
Ratio: 17:1
Turns, lock-to-lock: 4
Turning circle: 41 feet
Type: Hydraulic, power assist
Front: 9-inch solid disc
Rear: 11-inch expanding drum
Chassis & Body
Construction: Body on frame
Body style: Two-door, five-passenger fastback hardtop
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Suspension
Front: Heavy-duty independent, upper and lower control arms, coil springs, tubular shock absorbers, anti-roll bar
Rear: Live axle, coil springs, anti-roll bar
Wheels & Tires
Wheels: Stamped steel disc
Front: 15 x 7 inches
Rear: 15 x 7 inches
Tires: Goodyear Eagle GT radial
Front: P245/60R-15
Rear: P245/60R-15
Weights & Measures
Wheelbase: 119.0 inches
Overall length: 213.3 inches
Overall width: 78.0 inches
Overall height: 54.6 inches
Front track: 62.0 inches
Rear track: 62.0 inches
Curb weight: 3,785 pounds
Capacities
Crankcase: 6 quarts, with cooler
Cooling system: 20 quarts
Fuel tank: 25 gallons
Transmission: 13 quarts, with cooler
Rear axle: 5 pints
Calculated Data
Bhp per c.i.d.: 0.92 (est.)
Weight per bhp: 9.46 pounds (est.)
Weight per c.i.d.: 8.72 pounds
Production
2,171 Galaxie 500XL-GTs were built in 1968: 1,855 fastback hardtops, 316 convertibles
Performance
0-60 mph: 8.2 seconds (stock)
1/4 mile ET: 16.68 seconds @ 87 mph (stock)
Braking distance, 60-0 mph: N/A

This article originally appeared in the April, 2005 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines.